Successful first arts and crafts festival for historic Warwick gardens

Hill Close Garden's Art in the Gardens festival

Published:13:50Tuesday 22 August 2017

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The first arts and crafts festival held at historical gardens in Warwick has been heralded a success.

Last weekend Hill Close Gardens, which is located on Bread and Meat Close, hosted their first Art in the Gardens festival.

Hill Close Garden's Art in the Gardens festival

The event showcased a variety of arts and crafts ranging from painting and pottery to woodcarving and musical performances.

The gardens, which date back to the Victorian era, is made up of 16 individual garden plots.

Hill Close Garden’s style and layout is one of the few remaining in the country from the Victorian era.

The two-day event was held to provide something unique for Warwick and was in the making for nearly a year.

Hill Close Garden's Art in the Gardens festival

Di Brennan, founder of the festival and volunteer on the gardens management team, said: “The event went really well and we had a wonderful crowd arrive. We had lots and lots of visitors over the weekend.

“People came from quite a wide area and a lot of people were new to the gardens.

“We never heard a bad word said the whole weekend and we had wonderful reports from people,

“There really was something for everybody and everyone was getting involved with what was going on.

Hill Close Garden's Art in the Gardens festival

“There was a wide range if arts and crafts across the gardens, including at individual plots and I think people appreciated that it was very inclusive and that it was slightly different to other events such as Leamington’s Art in the Park.”

Because the event was successful it is hoped that the festival will become an annual date on the garden’s event calender,

Di said: “I think we would be mad not to consider doing this again next year. We have already had people asking if we are doing it next year and some of the artists asked to do it again and others are also asking to get involved.

“The ground is set to make it an annual event but that is something we need to discuss and decide first.”